My morning train reads:
• The Bitcoin Perpetual Motion Machine Is Starting to Sputter: Crypto treasury companies quietly crept into index funds and retirement accounts. Its collapse is good news for all of us. (Slate)
• DraftKings and FanDuel spending millions on 2026 midterms: The two largest online sports gambling companies, DraftKings and FanDuel, have already spent millions of dollars on the 2026 midterm elections, according to FEC disclosures filed on Friday. This is a sea change for the industry, which has traditionally focused its political spending on state politics. (Popular Information)
• U.S. Manufacturing Is in Retreat and Trump’s Tariffs Aren’t Helping: Levies on imports were supposed to bring back a golden age of U.S. manufacturing. They haven’t worked, so far. (Wall Street Journal)
• Pick for Federal Reserve Chair May Surprise The President: A childhood job at a racetrack taught Kevin Warsh more than he realized about how to amass power. (Politico)
• Stop Blaming DoorDash for the Affordability Crisis: One DoorDash Discourse to rule them all: Food away from home is down. Groceries are up. This is especially true for young people. Affordability is a real problem. (Mike Konczal)
• Meet ‘Coalie,’ the Lethal Mascot for Dirty Energy: Secy of the Interior Doug Burgum is using an anthropomorphized lump of coal, named “Coalie”, as the mascot of President Donald Trump’s “American Energy Dominance Agenda.” The use of Coalie as a mascot for the “American Energy Dominance Agenda” is seen as a perversion of its original purpose, as it now promotes the use of “clean, beautiful coal” despite the negative environmental effects of coal consumption. (Bloomberg free)
• The Murder of The Washington Post: Wednesday’s layoffs are the latest attempt to kill what makes the paper special. (The Atlantic)
• America has reached peak sauce, and some people won’t leave home without it: Just how much do we love condiments? We’re stashing them in purses, backpacks and glove compartments. (Washington Post)
• The Paramilitary ICE and CBP Units at the Center of Minnesota’s Killings: Two agents involved in the shooting deaths of US citizens in Minneapolis are reportedly part of highly militarized DHS units whose extreme tactics are generally reserved for war zones. (Wired) see also The powerful tools in ICE’s arsenal to track suspects — and protesters: Biometric trackers, cellphone location databases and drones are among the surveillance technologies that federal agents are tapping in their deportation campaign. (Washington Post) see also ICE Begins Buying ‘Mega’ Warehouse Detention Centers Across US: Plans for ‘mega centers’ and jails in nearly two dozen communities have sparked protests over suitability, proximity to homes and schools. (CityLab)
• No Cult Favorite: BREAKING AWAY Is a Masterpiece: I trust Breaking Away completely. Simply and without strain, it remains one of the greatest and most truthful American films ever made. (Tremble…Sigh…Wonder…)
Be sure to check out our Masters in Business interview this weekend with Bob Moser, CEO and founder of Prime Group Holdings, a private investor in unique real estate holdings. They created Prime Storage, one of the largest, privately-held self-storage brands in the world, with over 19 million rentable square feet of space and 255 locations across 28 states and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The firm has acquired over $10 billion in real estate assets.
The economy is doing great! (For 34 people)
Source: Your Brain on Money
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